In a cost effective effort to draw attention to the new Mission Viejo Microsoft Store, a new viral ad campaign is gushing about fun retail employees who start spontaneously line dancing to the Black Eyed Peas.

Microsoft drew initial crowds at its retail store launch by giving away hundreds of dollars worth of software, free concert tickets, free merchandise with new PC purchases, and by making significant charitable donations. But to keep interest up during tough times, things are now on a budget.

BradSlavin.com, a domain which was once parked as a search engine optimization page, has transformed to become a randomly written blog of a 35 year old man who excitedly writes generic copy about unrelated topics under the title "Subtle Persuasions."

The URL is just one of ten dozen domains run by Brad Slavin, who calls himself the "chief conversion officer" for a search engine optimization company that opened earlier this year. After two months of a few fake posts highlighting such professional milestones as the blogger's first "Facebook FML," Slavin posted a completely spontaneous dance routine that happened to bust out during his first visit to the Microsoft Store.

The visit wasn't even intentional, ostensibly. Slavin wrote that he saw the store was open while walking through the mall. "I guess I have been disconnected from the [Windows] platform for quite a while because I did not even realize that Microsoft had store but I have heard so many great things about Windows 7 I just had to check it out. I half expected the store to be a bland uninspiring cheap knockoff of an Apple Store, but WOW was I in for a surprise."

Something special in the air

Slavin wrote that "From the moment you first step through the door you can feel it, something is special, something is electric in the air. So many smiling faces, so many people engaged and fully committed to the experience and NO I am not just taking about the employees the nearly sixty shoppers in the store were having a riveting experience interacting with what is clearly the future."

After pitching the two products Microsoft doesn't sell in its retail stores, "Project Natal" and the $10,000 Surface PC, Slavin wrote that "Mid way through our visit the entire store broke out into song. Now I have seen this gimmick before at Coldstone Creamery and I know how they have been criticized in the media for it, but here it did not seem forced nor contrived, I would honestly say that this was the staff letting go, having some fun and not taking the brand all to [sic] seriously."

Double bypass

Slavin added "I was absolutely floored by this experience, Microsoft has made a bold move to capture new market share. I ordered a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate edition I have been a hard core Mac person for the past five years, I completely bypassed the Windows Vista experience but something is telling me that I am at a precipice looking directly into the future. Oh, and I just canceled my order for the 27inch iMac quad, I need a little time to think it over."

Another thing Slavin should think over is writing ad copy that says he "completely bypassed the Windows Vista experience" while the rest of his blog, including a "related posts" link just below the text, says things like "Windows Vista has been in development for roughly five years and I have been actively involved as a beta tester for the last few months" and "Windows Vista Ultimate is the perfect solution for a mix of multimedia and productivity."

Slavin's stilted video astroturf was mocked by Engadget, which compared it to Microsoft's "Rockin' Our Sales" Vista SP1 promo in "creepiness" and the Windows 7 Party campaign in terms of being "overly controlled."

Slavin linked back to Engadget, noting that "some of those comments are scathing," but Slavin's own blog is full of criticism from around the world, including a French post saying "Viral marketing FAIL: Oh My God. C'est pitiable." Reader Jake simply wrote "how embarrassing for Microsoft."

I don't see this as a fail at all, but it is good to see someone finally point out it's essential fakey-ness. This video is obviously part of a campaign and after three days in the news, it's nice to finally see someone point it out.

Not that I ever really agree with the industry shills over at Engadget, but I don't see how this is "cringeworthy" at all. Boring maybe, but overall nothing to get upset about.

Be sure to check out the woman in the white shirt shop-lifting an item at the 2:15 mark.

Small cost for a viral advert!!

Seriously, she must have known people would be videoing this. Wonder if M$ will take any action.

What I did find clear in the video, is how mush M$ has ripped off the style of Apple stores. Tables with stools, the actual layout of displays, even the display unit which this woman shop lifted a product from is identical to Apple's.

Personnally I think this viral will backfire as people see the M$ rip-off.

Slavin wrote that "From the moment you first step through the door you can feel it, something is special, something is electric in the air. So many smiling faces, so many people engaged and fully committed to the experience and NO I am not just taking about the employees the nearly sixty shoppers in the store were having a riveting experience interacting with what is clearly the future."

Slavin - First off - you're an idiot. Secondly - If I walked into a computer store and felt 'something electric in the air' I'd leave really fast. If a bunch of clumsy unfit looking people in bright shirts started spontaneously dancing, I'd run. How fucking embarrassing would that be? If this is an attempt at viral advertising I'd also be embarrassed. If I was MS I'd be offended and insulted. Why would you belittle the people who work for you? Why would you depict yourself as a complete dork?

Judging by the 1.5 star rating on the video, I'm willing to bet this was an epic FAIL in letting the world know this happened.

Canceled your 27" iMAC because of that? What horse shit. And even if you were being honest about the atmosphere in the store, uh, who do you think they copied with the colored shirts and store layout and...

Whole Foods allows the manager that sets up the stores to do something personal in each location. The Denver Cherry Creek store has a disco ball above the check-out counters. The difference is that they have they good sense not to use it.

Completey Agree. Peopl are talking about MS ads. Now the talk is not favourable in the least. But MS isn't looking to be universally loved. It's looked to not be ignored.

Look at their Win 7 TV campaign. The only bright spot in it is when the "customer" has a flashback and they see themselves as leaner, more beautiful people. I find that funny in a "Family Guy" sort of way.

Overall it's bad marketing that draws attention to itself. At least that's better than all thebad marketing out there.

Maybe MS can get the ShamWow guy to do somethign for them. That woul dbe virally funny.

Whether the video was supposed to be cringe-worthy or not, as a viral campaign it has worked. It's got everyone talking about Microsoft's new store. Mission accomplished.

Well, NO. There's a theory that there's no such thing as bad publicity, but actually - there really is. And this is it.

If no one had ever heard of Microsoft, then you might say, yeah, this viral thing put them on the map. For better or worse, certainly, but it put them on the map.

But that's not the issue. Everyone already knows what Microsoft is, everyone knows what windows is. This garbage didn't change that. All this campaign did was to perpetuate the growing perception that they are a joke.

Once they were respected - and feared. Now they're a joke. And they are creating that image themselves, with their very own money. "Mission accomplished", indeed.

It truly a desperate times, they all probably has some real job they were laid off from and this was the only job they could get and they would do anything to keep their job even line dance, I would expect that in Texas but not Northern CA.

I like the part where he said "I half expected the store to be a bland uninspiring cheap knockoff of an Apple Store, but WOW was I in for a surprise."

Has this guy even BEEN in an Apple store? Even the ceiling looks the same as an Apple store. The benches where merchandise is placed, the minimalistic placement of the computers. Heck - if they didn't actually say it was an MS store - it could easily be mistaken for one (minus the stupid dancers of course).

It seems to me with disaster after disaster at Microsoft, that they are purposefully making themselves look ridiculous and trying to run that company into the ground. I mean, how can you make mistake after mistake, before realizing, whoever is in charge here, is a complete retard (Ballmer). This video is just another nail in the coffin for Microsoft. How anyone can still buy and use a Microsoft product is beyond me.